


deciduous

by grainjew



Series: took our time and the time has flown [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Immortality, Team Rocket - Freeform, but this one does have its allotted segment, i love...... when team rocket does temporary truces with the twerps, its physically impossible for me to put more than five seconds of angst per fic in this series, its so much fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 20:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18977608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: There's upheaval in Team Rocket. (The criminal organization, that is. Not the trio.)Jessie and Meowth are occupied, so James, who is aging slowly, takes it upon himself to tell the Twerp, who hasn't aged at all.





	deciduous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



> timeline: approximately fourty years after the first episode of the anime
> 
> context for if you haven't read the first fic in this series: ash and pikachu don't age and don't die and are having a good time traveling the world, helping people out, and making friends

Wind was whipping up crinkly autumn leaves and sending them swirling past his face when James spotted the Twerp and Pikachu sitting on a park bench. They were talking about something, or maybe arguing, but they stopped when he got close. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed. The were hilarious to eavesdrop on, but he was there for a purpose. A purpose he wanted to get over with as quick as he could.

“Hey, Twerp,” said James.

“Hey James.” The Twerp hardly looked up as James sat down next to him. “You up to something?”

The question was more a formality than anything, because Pikachu’s cheeks weren’t even sparking. They’d been trucing more and more as the years went on, until Team Rocket found themselves having to specifically announce enmity to get themselves taken seriously. Or, as seriously as they ever got took.

Well, best to take the plunge.

“The boss is dead.”

“Oh,” said the Twerp, after a moment. He paused. Pikachu nudged him. “Um. I'm sorry?”

“Pika,” said Pikachu, not sounding very sad. Which was fair.

James ignored him, tracked leaves whirling across the grass with his eyes. “Jessie's trying to get involved in the succession crisis; Meowth is devastated. I thought I'd come let you know.”

“Mm,” said the Twerp. No acknowledgement of how the boss being dead was probably for the best, for the Twerps and for the world and maybe even for James and Jessie and Meowth. James appreciated that, because he wasn’t sure how to feel about the whole thing himself. “Thanks.” The Twerp bit his lip. “What're you guys gonna do now?”

James rolled his eyes and shoved his thoughts back. He wasn’t much good at morality. None of them were. “Depends if Jessie gets her way or not. I was thinking we run, but the other two…”

“Yeah,” said the Twerp. He was scratching at Pikachu and looking at James all appraisingly. Absently, James wondered what pokemon the Twerp had on him. He switched a lot, lately, especially with the ones who were getting older. “This is your best chance, isn’t it?”

“If we get lucky, for sure. Could be whoever ends up as the boss hunts down every last person who betrayed ‘em, could be we get lost in the confusion and make a clean getaway for the first time in our lives.”

The Twerp laughed, shortly. “You’re low enough on the ladder to get away with it, huh?”

“We’re— yeah, alright, we totally are. Shut up, Twerp.” James scowled at Pikachu specifically. “We’re memorable enough it’d be a bit touch-and-go, though.”

“I don’t doubt it,” said the Twerp, something sardonic in his tone. “I couldn’t ever forget you guys either.”

James turned his scowl from Pikachu to the Twerp, because really that was uncalled-for. “Hey!”

“Pika, pikachuu,” said Pikachu smugly, and James scowled more.

Then the Twerp reached over and put his hand over James’s hand, with an odd sort of softness that James had never felt from him before. It was like he was checking James was still alive, and whole, and real, and James felt his scowl fade, felt himself forgetting the mockery, and every time he’d been blasted off, and four decades of failures.

“I dunno what I'll do when you guys die,” said the Twerp, still touching James’s hand. James thought he might melt from the contact, which he felt was an entirely unwarranted reaction. But it wasn’t like anyone he associated with knew how to be gentle. Even in affection. Especially in affection.

“Not have to fend us off every day?” he said. The Twerp was silent, the heavy kind that pulled down clouds and made a person appreciate their own insignificance. James wrapped fingers around his tiny ten-year-old hand without really thinking about it. “Hey, at the rate we're aging, it'll be a good two hundred years before Jessie starts complaining about grey hairs.”

James didn’t know how long it had been since he’d held someone’s hand.

The Twerp gripped back, and laughed. “Fair point. You’re like, twenty-four now?”

“Pika pika,” corrected Pikachu, even though James was sure it was keeping about as little track as the Twerp.

“Something like that,” he said. “After fourty years of chasing you, I’d say we’re doing pretty good.”

“Mm,” said the Twerp. Half a fallen, crumbling leaf bounced down the path with all the excitement of a real ten-year-old leaving on their pokemon journey. “It’s just, you’ve been here since almost the beginning. Almost as long as Pikachu.” Pikachu made an affonted noise. “Don’t worry, buddy, I still love you best.”

He didn’t release James’s hand, though. Not even when he reached up to scratch at the base of Pikachu’s tail and send it incoherent with delight.

James pretended to himself like he wasn’t shivering from the wind or maybe from a delayed sort of shock, like the Twerp’s hand in his wasn’t unbearably warm and alive. He tried to picture a future. “Well, we could search for the secret to immortality,” he suggested. “Jessie would love that. Meowth would say we should give it to the boss, but the boss is— and we’d get better use of it, anyways.”

The Twerp grinned at him. “Sounds as futile as catching Pikachu,” he said. “You sure know how to pick your projects!”

“Futile is what we do best,” James said back. “Besides, you're still ten, you can't talk.”

“‘Bout what?”

James gestured wide with his free hand to indicate the sky, scattered with herds of clouds. “About the futility of a quest for immortality!” He added, after a moment, “Obviously.”

“Sure, but me and Pikachu are ten on _accident,_ ” said the Twerp.

“Pika-ch _uuu_ ,” commented Pikachu in the Twerp’s direction. James felt very smug, although he lost the thread of the sentence when Pikachu kept going and then the Twerp started muttering back.

Then they were bantering for real and James was feeling very ignored. Those two were the _worst_ to hang out with.

“Besides, there’s all sorts of ways out there to be immortal,” James interrupted loudly after a few minutes of _that._ They broke off their argument, laughing. Vindicated, James continued, “Xerneas, first off, but I wouldn’t go down that route if I had a choice — that Lysandre guy was a total creep.”

The Twerp stopped laughing, and blinked, twice, like a deerling caught in a spotlight, and squeezed James’s hand sharply in a way James doubted was conscious.

“Yeah.” His voice was faint. Pikachu leaned over and caught the Twerp’s cheek in a deliberate lick, then draped itself over the span of his shoulders like a scarf. “Sure was.”

“Guess you’d know better than me,” said James, doing his best to ignore the way his fingers were being crushed.

“Pika,” said Pikachu. “Pikapi…”

The Twerp quirked a smile. “Lemme know if there’s anything I can do to help out.” He paused. “With the getting out of Team Rocket thing, I mean. I guess if you think I can help with Jessie or Meowth’s stuff I’ll try, but, I dunno…”

James almost brushed him off. It was Team Rocket business, not Twerp business, and anyways he was still trying to figure out how the Twerp had changed the subject so fast. But every mess the Twerp got his grubby fingers in always seemed to work itself out in favor of the people he was helping.

And James was damn well capable of admitting when he could use some help.

“I’ll keep in touch, same as usual,” he said instead. After a moment of thought, he added, “You alright?”

James usually didn’t ask if people were alright, and he especially didn’t ask if twerps were alright. And the Twerp seemed perfectly fine, like always. But James was pretty sure Pikachu was the only person who could actually read the Twerp’s face, and he’d felt the reflexive way the Twerp had tensed his grip. After the force of it, James was a little surprised to find he didn’t have any broken bones.

“Totally fine,” said the Twerp, smiling again, and it somehow didn’t even sound fake. “Just didn’t expect to hear that name, is all.”

“Mm,” said James. “…Sorry.” Then, before he could dwell on the fact that he’d just apologized unprompted to the _Twerp,_ he continued, “So where are you off to next? We gonna have to book expensive plane tickets?”

“You have a balloon, don’t you?” said the Twerp.

“Pika pika!”

“Do you _know_ how slow balloon travel is?” asked James.

The Twerp continued, heedless, “But nah. We were thinking of giving the contest circuit another try. Dawn keeps going on about all the promising young coordinators, and Pikachu’s had some pretty cool appeal ideas, so we may as well give it a shot, you know?”

Now _there_ was an idea. “Jessie can’t get involved in Team politics when she’s coordinating,” he muttered. And it would give Meowth something else to think about, too. “Sinnoh?”

“Sinnoh,” confirmed the Twerp, nodding. “See you there?”

“And probably beforehand,” said James. He made to get up, and then realized that would mean releasing the Twerp’s hand and aborted the motion. They sat there for a few minutes, just watching leaves skitter across grass and clouds gather, and then James sighed. “I s’pose I should go talk to the others.”

“Yeah, probably,” said the Twerp. “Good luck.”

James let go the Twerp’s hand, and got off the bench, and turned back towards his teammates, wind stinging on his face and skinning off all the warmth physical contact had left him.

He said back, and found he meant it: “Good lu—”

“Come with us,” interrupted the Twerp.

James stopped mid-step, swung his head around and stared. “What?”

The Twerp grinned. “Come travelling with us!”

“Become a _twerp?_ ”

“Just for a region or two!”

“Being a twerp is a lifetime thing!” retorted James.

But… To throw in their lot with the Twerp, who had connections with influential people and legends the world over, who stood by his friends till he dropped and after, who always won when it came to the really important things, who was warm and kind and knew how to cherish… It was a tempting thing. And the three of them could more than use help like that.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he promised, and realized he was smiling back.

**Author's Note:**

> james is soft and i love him


End file.
